Opinion | Ted Cruz really could lose
www.msnbc.com
No Democrat has won a statewide race in Texas in decades. But conditions are friendlier than ever.

No Democrat has won a statewide race in Texas in decades. But conditions are friendlier than ever.

There’s a reason no Democrat has accomplished a statewide victory in Texas since 1994.

Pulling off such an upset would require a uniquely talented politician running an almost perfect campaign. That candidate would need to display discipline, calm and poise. Be telegenic and quick on the feet. The candidate would need to be thoroughly Texan and have an identity infused with elements of the state’s cultural zeitgeist. The person would need to run in a halfway decent national political environment. And even with all of those boxes checked, that rare Democrat would still need to square off against an extraordinarily disliked Republican running a lackluster campaign without much support from the person’s own colleagues.

Enter: Rep. Colin Allred.

Allred’s remarkable debate performance Tuesday spawned a flurry of Instagram slides, TikTok videos and X posts. Both in Texas and nationwide, news feeds have been flush this week with clips of the former professional football player rebuking Sen. Ted Cruz for hiding in a “supply closet” during the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — a riot by a mob that Cruz himself helped whip up. Others showed him repeatedly referencing the time Cruz flew to Cancun, Mexico, as hundreds of Texans died during the middle of a winter freeze, or hammering him on his abortion stance — an issue critical to white female voters who have been abandoning the GOP in droves.

But an impressive debate performance alone is not enough for a Democrat to win a state like Texas. However, polls, fundraising and a changing political climate have all looked promising for Allred. Today, Texas Democrats are in an extraordinary situation, one that has proved elusive over the past three decades: They have an actual chance of winning a statewide race.

  • tehn00bi@lemmy.world
    84·
    2 months ago

    Do you know how hated you have to be to be the incumbent republican senator from Texas to lose in a general election?

  • sartalon@lemmy.world
    421·
    2 months ago

    A lot of Republican cans hate Ted Cruz here in Texas. They can’t stand him. They think he’s an ass.

    But he’s a Republican and that’s all they fucking see in that booth.

    Look at who is in office.

    The governor, the Lt. governor, the state AG. They are ALL really terrible people, doing really terrible things. And the Republicans here don’t give a shit.

    The problem is getting the left to fucking vote.

    And that cunt, Kim Ogg in Houston, endorsed Ted Cruz. (Side note, there’s something rotten in Houston right now though and I have no idea what’s going on. I have NO idea who to trust anymore.)

  • ScoopMcPoops@lemmy.world
    40·
    2 months ago

    I really don’t get how Texans can vote for a Canadian that changed their name? Don’t they hate non-americans and people that transition? Why don’t Democrats rub it in that he’s “not American” and that his real name is Rafael. I feel like he would’ve been old news if any dem did that 12 years ago?

  • IcePee@lemmy.beru.co
    285·
    2 months ago

    I remember similar being said about Beto O’Rourke. In the end he floundered on the rocks of Cruz’s candacy.

    • trevor@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      662·
      2 months ago

      Beto likely lost because he said the stupidest shit that a dem running in Texas could have said (“we will take your guns!”) and it killed his campaign momentum. And even then, he only lost by 2-3%.

      To my knowledge, Allred hasn’t shot himself in the foot like that, so there is a real chance for him to win.

      • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
        7·
        2 months ago

        we will take your guns

        I mean, he could have retconned it into asking for their active participation in something requiring guns

        • Thunderbird4@lemmy.world
          151·
          2 months ago

          He could have, yes.

          Instead, he doubled down on it and continued his campaign essentially with the message “Yes, I really do want to take away certain guns. Vote for me, Texans!”

          • WHARRGARBL@lemmy.world
            4·
            2 months ago

            Beto didn’t say anything about guns until 2019, after he lost the Senate race, and then campaigned for POTUS.

          • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
            12·
            2 months ago

            Even there he could have said something about illegal alien ghetto cocaine-smuggling communist cartel guns, though.

            But OK, it’s just the kind of humor that pleases me to write is not the same as what fits the subject

      • WHARRGARBL@lemmy.world
        4·
        2 months ago

        Get your facts straight. Beto did not speak about gun control during his Senate campaign.

        The year after he lost the Senate race to Cruz, Beto briefly campaigned for POTUS. It was during his presidential campaign that he brought up removing AR-15s and spoke about gun buyback programs.

        Speaking about guns did not cost Beto the Texas Senate race because Beto is not a time traveler.

  • hohoho@lemmy.world
    12·
    2 months ago

    I do not like that boy Ted Cruz

    To Allred I really wish he’d lose

    The man would easily fill his shoes

    And kick out those red state blues

    Give the boy a chance to choose

    Between facing justice and Belarus

  • TinidrilEnglish
    73·
    2 months ago

    You must have watched a different debate than I did. Despite knowing that every word out of Cruz was a disgusting lie, Cruz kicked his ass through the entire debate. Allred’s performance was a textbook example of exactly why establishment Democrats frequently lose what should be easy races.

    Cruz might still be hated enough to lose, but not because of that debate. I finished watching the debate and thought “thank God nobody watches Senatorial debates!”